Decision Making & Problem Solving Books

Building Thinking Skills- Critical Thinking skills for reading, writing, math, science (Level 1(Grades 2-3) (Building Thinking Skills)

Sandra Parks, Howard Black

List Price: $29.99 By: CRITICAL THINKING PRESS - Model: CTB05241 Amazon Marketplace: 11 new & used starting at $29.99

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Features:

• high quality
• Special outlet purchase.
• Classic design.

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Subjects -> Children's Books -> Educational -> General AAS
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Education -> Education Theory -> Decision Making & Problem Solving
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Education -> Elementary School -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

I love this book!!! 5 out of 5 stars.
12 of 19 people found this review helpful.

Sylvan Learning Center uses it, that should be enough of a testimony right there!

Great for all ages 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 11 people found this review helpful.

This is an excellent series of books that are great for children and adults. My newly 4 year old daughter is able to do many of the problems and enjoys the focus and accomplishment of doing them.

So Fun 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 9 people found this review helpful.

My whole family loved this book. I had as much fun as my 5-year-old. It was easy enough for my youngest while still challenging my oldest(8). I love these books and will be purchasing the whole set.

Editorial Review:

Includes units on figural and verbal descriptions, similarities and differences, sequences, classifications, and analogies. Skills addressed include reading comprehension; describing shapes, things, and words; following directions; antonyms and synonyms; several types of analogy; deductive reasoning; parts of a whole; mapping and directionality; logical connectives; spelling and vocabulary; overlapping classes; pattern folding; tracking, rotation, and reflection; mental manipulation of two-dimensional objects. Reading level: grade 2; ability level: grades 2-4; 326 activities. Reproducible for single-classroom or single-home use.

Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision-Making

Sam Kaner, Lenny Lind, Catherine Toldi, Sarah Fisk, Duane Berger

List Price: $26.95 By: New Society Publishers Amazon Marketplace: 20 new & used starting at $2.00

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Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Management & Leadership -> Decision-Making & Problem Solving
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Management & Leadership -> Management
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 22 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Would not be without it! 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This book is a key resource for me when designing a facilitation session. It is a much depended on resource that has guided me through some challengeing situations. The section on Building Sustainable Agreements is full of wonderful techniques to help groups meet their goals. I have to mention the "Gradients of Agreement", this is an amazing tool for gaining group consensus. The Dynamics of Group Decision making is foundational knowledge for any facilitator. When I talk to groups about this they can really relate to the "Groan Zone".

Editorial Review:

This book provides the tools to put democratic values into practice in groups and organizations. Designed to help groups increase participation and collaboration, promote mutual understanding, honor diversity, and make effective, inclusive, participatory decisions, it is loaded with graphics, guidelines and hand outs, and presents more than 200 valuable tools and skills. It is perfect for managers, participants, seasoned practitioners, and students of working group dynamics.

Schools That Learn: A Fifth Discipline Fieldbook for Educators, Parents, and Everyone Who Cares About Education

Peter M. Senge, Nelda H. Cambron McCabe, Timothy Lucas, Art Kleiner, Janis Dutton, Bryan Smith

Amazon Price: $24.75 List Price: $37.50 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Doubleday Business Amazon Marketplace: 76 new & used starting at $14.99

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Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Education -> Education Theory -> Administration
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Education -> Education Theory -> Decision Making & Problem Solving
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Education -> Education Theory -> Leadership

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Created by bestselling author and MIT senior lecturer Peter Senge and a team of educators and organizational change leaders, this new addition to the Fifth Discipline Resource Book series offers practical advice for educators, administrators, and parents on how to strengthen and rebuild our schools.

Few would argue that schools today are in trouble. The problems are sparking a national debate as educators, school boards, administrators, and parents search for ways to strengthen our school system at all levels, more effectively respond to the rapidly changing world around us, and better educate our children.

Bestselling author Peter Senge and his Fifth Discipline team have written Schools That Learn because educators—who have made up a sizable percentage of the audience for the popular Fifth Discipline books—have asked for a book that focuses specifically on schools and education, to help reclaim schools even in economically depressed or turbulent districts. One of the great strengths of Schools That Learn is its description of practices that are meeting success across the country and around the world, as schools attempt to learn, grow, and reinvent themselves using the principles of organizational learning. Featuring articles, case studies, and anecdotes from prominent educators such as Howard Gardner, Jay Forrester, and 1999 U.S. Superintendent of the Year Gerry House, as well as from impassioned teachers, administrators, parents, and students, the book offers a wealth of practical tools, anecdotes, and advice that people can use to help schools (and the classrooms in them and communities around them) learn to learn.

You'll read about schools, for instance, where principals introduce themselves to parents new to the school as "entering a nine-year conversation" about their children's education; where teachers use computer modeling to galvanize student insight into everything from Romeo and Juliet to the extinction of the mammoths; and where teachers' training is not just bureaucratic ritual but an opportunity to recharge and rethink the classroom.

In a fast-changing world where school violence is a growing concern, where standardized tests are applied as simplistic "quick fixes," where rapid advances in science and technology threaten to outpace schools' effectiveness, where the average tenure of a school district superintendent is less than three years, and where students, parents, and teachers feel weighed down by increasing pressures, Schools That Learn offers much-needed material for the dialogue about the educating of children in the twenty-first century.

1-2-3 Magic for Teachers: Effective Classroom Discipline Pre-K through Grade 8

Thomas W. Phelan, Sarah Jane Schonour

Amazon Price: $10.17 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Parentmagic, Inc. Amazon Marketplace: 51 new & used starting at $6.15

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Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Education -> Education Theory -> Classroom Management
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Education -> Education Theory -> Decision Making & Problem Solving
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Education -> Elementary School -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

It worked for me 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful.

I teach Kindergarten and have 5 very difficult boys. I read the book Monday and started Tuesday. By Thursday I was amazed.

Saved my Life! 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

This book was fabulous. It clearly sets up a classroom management plan and it goes through step by step how to set it up in the classroom. Even if you decide not use their counting system, one can still benefit from the practice in identifying, setting, and following through on limits.

Editorial Review:

Offering advice for teachers eager to develop better discipline in the classroom, this guide provides practical methods for eliminating disruptive behavior, encouraging productive work habits, and communicating with parents. Clear lessons and straightforward language reveal how to measure discipline in a classroom environment, as well as how to handle difficult situations, such as transition times, assemblies, lunchtime, and field trips. A separate chapter for school administrators explains how to support classroom teachers in creating discipline and how to evaluate those teachers.

Team Challenges: 170+ Group Activities to Build Cooperation, Communication, and Creativity

Kris Bordessa

List Price: $19.95 By: Zephyr Press Amazon Marketplace: 8 new & used starting at $15.28

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Subjects -> Children's Books -> General AAS
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> Creativity & Genius
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Education -> Education Theory -> Contemporary Methods -> Experimental

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

An excelent manual for facilitators 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Team Challenges: 170+ Group Activities to Build Cooperation, Communication, and Creativity
It is a very thorough set of games for many purposes. Creative use of very common materials make it a treasure for facilitators, educators and managers conducting training and or meetings. I found very useful games regarding team building, communication, energizing physical activities and the like.

Upbeet, Creative, Fun! 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I am a therapist at a child and adolescent day treatment for kids with emotional and behavioral issues. It can be difficult to find activities that seem to motivate and energize the kids. They enjoyed many of the activities in this book. The activities are very hands-on and involve a lot of working together to build things out of all kinds of everyday materials. I highly recommend this book.

A wide variety of great ideas. 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book offers all kinds of great activities that will help foster cooperation, communication and creativity within whatever group of people you're using it for. The tasks range from mental activities to physical ones and are easy to understand, fun to execute and can be completed with objects that you usually have around the house. The book is a great tool for your own children, birthday parties, classrooms and it's also a perfect teacher gift!

Learning to Think Things Through: A Guide to Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum

Gerald M. Nosich

List Price: $26.67 By: Prentice Hall Amazon Marketplace: 17 new & used starting at $17.56

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Learning to Think Things Through: A Guide to Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum 4 out of 5 stars.
9 of 10 people found this review helpful.

Although the topics discussed in this book initially seemed a bit convoluted or wordy to me, upon second review it was a worthwhile read. I have found that appreciating the labor and reflection involved in critical thinking is much like acquiring a taste for some strange food or drink you didn't like as a child, but then as one matures so do their tastebuds and expectations. "Learning to Think Things Through" was a good way to break myself into the subject of critical thinking. Again it came across as a bit overstated and even technical at first, but then after re-reading some portions, I found it to be a very good starting place.

Editorial Review:

A supplementary text for use in any subject-matter course at any educational level. This short, inexpensive guide is designed to help students learn to think critically in any subject-matter course. A combination of instruction and exercises shows them how to use critical thinking to more fully to appreciate the power of the discipline they are studying, to see its connections to other fields and to their day-to-day lives, to maintain an overview of the field so they can see the parts in terms of the whole, and to become active learners rather than passive recipients of information.

Designs for Living and Learning: Transforming Early Childhood Environments

Deb Curtis, Margie Carter

Amazon Price: $28.34 List Price: $39.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Redleaf Press Amazon Marketplace: 45 new & used starting at $22.88

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Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Education -> Preschool & Kindergarten
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Education -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Excellent early childhood ideas for environments 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book is referenced daily for new ideas for my infant toddler classroom. It has ideas that are obviously inspired by children and enjoyed by children and adults alike. The text gives a wonderful insight into ECE environments that help teaching staff give quality care in all aspects of child development. It is one of the best books out there.

Editorial Review:

Give children wondrous places to learn and grow! Drawing inspiration from a variety of approaches -- from Waldorf to Montessori to Reggio to Greenman, Prescott, and Olds -- the authors outline hundreds of ways to create healthy and inviting physical, social, and emotional environments for children in child care. Full-color photographs of actual early childhood programs demonstrate that the spaces children learn and grow in can be comfortable for children, teachers, and parents alike.

Margie Carter serves on the adjunct faculty at Pacific Oaks College Northwest, Seattle, Washington. Deb Curtis works as a child care teacher at the Burlington Little School in Seattle. Their other books include The Art of Awareness, The Visionary Director, Training Teachers, Spreading the News, and Reflecting Children's Lives.

Comprehensive Classroom Management: Creating Communities of Support and Solving Problems (8th Edition)

Vernon Jones, Louise Jones

Amazon Price: $82.80 List Price: $92.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Allyn & Bacon Amazon Marketplace: 34 new & used starting at $77.79

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Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Education -> Instruction Method -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

required class reading 1 out of 5 stars.
23 of 25 people found this review helpful.

I was required to purchase this book for a class I am currently taking. While the content of the book could be useful, the manner in which it is written is laden with ridiculous run-on ideas that could be communicated much more clearly. Here is an example from page 28:

"Regardless of the extent to which teachers decide to adapt to the norms and parenting styles of their student's culture or systematically assists students in learning to adapt while maintaining their cultural values, the point is that as educators we are willing to examine our own beliefs and way of working with students in light of the contextual variables existing in the classroom, school and community."

To students who may be required to read this text: Good luck. Perhaps you can change classes before it is too late.

To professors who may add this book to their required reading list: Please, please, please pass on this text and choose something more relevant and tangible for your students.

To educators who may choose this book to answer questions or add to their professional library: choose something else. This book is useless. My advice is your time will be better spent going to talk to teachers who have been in the field rather than reading this book.

Editorial Review:

Comprehensive Classroom Management presents practical methods for creating a positive learning environment, working with behavior problems, and other challenges in the classroom. This text uses real-life examples to help pre-service and in-service teachers understand and apply the principles of classroom management in their own classroom situations. Through numerous case studies, examples, and descriptions of specific strategies based on solid research and classroom experience, Comprehensive Classroom Management features classrooms ranging from kindergarten through twelfth grade. The book's approach is to focus on creating positive learning environments, and it provides extensive, practical materials on both problem-solving and building individual behavior change plans for students with behavioral problems. For pre-service and in-service teachers of elementary or secondary education, curriculum & instruction, educational psychology, or special education.

Skillstreaming the Elementary School Child: New Strategies and Perspectives for Teaching Prosocial Skills

Ellen McGinnis, Arnold P. Goldstein

Amazon Price: $20.65 List Price: $22.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Research Press Amazon Marketplace: 20 new & used starting at $6.18

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Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Education -> Education Theory -> Decision Making & Problem Solving
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Education -> Education Theory -> Educational Psychology
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Education -> Elementary School -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Sound theory and clear explanations for the school worker. 5 out of 5 stars.
13 of 17 people found this review helpful.

I think this book, an update of the original which I have also read, gives clear and precise instructions for creating prosocial behavior groups and interventions. The principles behind the model espoused in this book are sound and effective. In the short time I have used this model in my groups, I have seen some slight but noticeable behavior changes in the students.

Nice book 3 out of 5 stars.
7 of 50 people found this review helpful.

Very good book...A good balance with respect to MAINstreaming...

A wonderful resource 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Skillstreaming is a wonderful resource for any mental health professional who works with young children. The book addresses practical problems that professionals encounter in schools, clinics, and residential settings. I especially like the authors' emphasis on behaviorally-based intervention. I also like the fact that the authors encourage professionals to assess and monitor their interventions to determine their effectiveness. In short, I highly recommend this book as a resource for child psychologists, school psychologists, counselors, teachers, and others who work with children.

Editorial Review:

This book shows how to teach 60 prosocial skills such as asking for help, saying thank you, accepting consequences, using self-control, and dealing with group pressure. Skill areas are divided into five groups: Classroom Survival Skills, Friendship-Making Skills, Dealing with Feelings, alternatives to Aggression, and Dealing with Stress.

Analogies for Beginners

Dianne Draze

Amazon Price: $8.95 List Price: $8.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Prufrock Press, Inc. Amazon Marketplace: 20 new & used starting at $4.55

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

An analogy is a comparison that points out the similarities between things that are different in all other respects. Teaching students how to solve analogies not only develops their logical thinking but also builds visual awareness and verbal proficiency.

The seven different types of visual analogies and 14 different verbal analogies in Analogies for Beginners are perfect for beginning lessons in logical reasoning, flexible thinking, and vocabulary. Each page gives students an example of the type of analogy that is being introduced and then provides 7 (visual) or 10 (verbal) problems for them to solve. This combination of verbal and visual format is an ideal way to introduce logical thinking in primary grades. Whether you have time for one analogy a day or a worksheet a week, students will benefit in many ways when analogies are part of your curriculum. The use of visual analogies is beneficial for developing visual analysis even for older students, but especially useful for non-readers and students with developing English skills. The verbal analogies provide students with exercises that require them to use word comprehension and also to examine various characteristics, uses, and relationships.

This is one of a series of analogy books. For younger students use First Time Analogies and Attribute Thinking Activities. For older students use Thinking Through Analogies, Analogy Roundup, Analogies for the 21st Century, or Advancing Though Analogies.

Grades 1-3